GenViR Network India:UK
Tackling gender-based violence through the arts
GenViR India:UK Project is highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary, international network of scholars, NGOs, and communities focused on co-creating solutions to the effects of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in India. Network uses novel applied theatre and digital storytelling methodologies which will both explore and mobilise community resources to mitigate GBV against internal migrant women and the hijra in slum dwelling communities in India.
There is a notable scarcity of research and insight into how women and the hijra mitigate these adversities, and how they construct resilience for positive living. This project represents untold stories which the network intends to explore.
Gender-based violence in India
In India women and girls with multiple intersecting socio-economic vulnerabilities - the poorest, those from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities, and those with limited education – are at greatest risk. Additionally, we find that the Hijra community in India are placed at the margins and live a life on visible-invisibility or simultaneous inclusion and exclusion. It is for this reason that they voices are seldom heard and they are often delegated to a peripheral hence disenfranchised position.
Arts-based approaches
Using novel digital storytelling and applied theatre approaches, tested in our previous GCRF/AHRC projects, the network will bring together experts in GBV, mental health, psychology, sociology, social work, storytelling, and applied theatre along with NGOs, local communities, and digital media experts to collaboratively develop a research programme in response to gender-based violence (GBV) against women in slum dwelling communities.
Through the application of applied theatre and storytelling as an umbrella concept, we envisage that these arts-based practice will create theatre with community groups with the aim of inviting change and investigating community-led solutions to the lived experiences of injustice, inequity, and violence.
Our theatrical, storytelling and digital media engagement will offer opportunities over and above conventional research methods to elicit new stories and experiences and catalyze fresh thinking about possible solutions in a way which can engage both women and men from marginalized communities in addressing GBV.
Network Partners
Lead organization: De Montfort University, UK
Dr. Nadia Svirydzenka, De Montfort University, UK
Dr. Anoop Bhogal-Nair, De Montfort University, UK
Prof. Raghu Raghavan, De Montfort University, UK
Prof. Brian Brown, De Montfort University, UK
Dr. Antonia Liguori, Loughborough University, UK
Prof. Selina Busby, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK
Dr. Harjinder Kaur-Aujla, University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Rashi Bhargava, Christ University, India
Project Partners
SWADHAR, India
CESVI, India
Excavate Theatre, UK
Dr Ankit Dwivedi, TISS, India
Dr Ngozi Oparah, University of Loughborough/UCL, UK
“Calling gender violence a women’s issue is part of the problem. It gives a lot of men an excuse not to pay attention.”
— Jackson Katz
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions using the form opposite, or the email address below..
Email
genvir@dmu.ac.uk